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Issue 454 - June 27, 2007
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2007
==== 1458 Subscribers in 49 Countries ====
Welcome to the 454th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists mainly
of news highlights and tips. There is something for everyone, and if this is
your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you. If you give me
two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!
You can reach me at editor@pcin.net with
any suggestions or comments.
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.php
Contents
Opening Thoughts
Graham editor@pcin.net and
Chris chris@pcin.net
News Highlights
Email Gets Constitutional Protection
The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and
search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark
ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that
email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored
email as they do in their telephone calls -- the first circuit court ever
to make that finding.
Over the last 20 years, the government has routinely used the federal Stored
Communications Act (SCA) to secretly obtain stored email from email service
providers without a warrant. But today's ruling -- closely following the
reasoning in an amicus brief filed the by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF) and other civil liberties groups -- found that the SCA violates the
Fourth Amendment.
Read the Technology
News Daily article...
Leave a comment...
Dell Thinks Pink
If Jonathan Ive were dead, which he's not, he'd be spinning in his grave.
Instead, Apple's chief designer is probably vomiting in his wastebasket.
In an effort by the staid, slumping computer maker to break its bland streak,
Dell rolled out new laptops Tuesday cloaked in eight different colors, including "sunshine
yellow" and "flamingo pink."
But while Dell may or may not impress design snobs with its pink and yellow
machines, the computer maker is reading its market right, if a little late.
Read the Forbes article...
Leave a comment...
Half of Britons 'e-mail addicts'
Half of Britons could not exist without e-mail - with 30 or 40-somethings
more addicted than teens, a survey finds.
Fifty per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds told ICM researchers they would not
be able to carry on without e-mail.
Forty one per cent of teenagers said they relied on e-mail, while 44% of
35 to 44-year-olds said e-mail was vital.
Read the BBC article...
Leave a comment...
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Digital Photography
Tip of the Week
The Best of the Digital Photography Tip of the Week
Another one of Chris' compositional tips was regarding curves
and diagonals. Chris explained that, "photographs are static images.
To add life to them, we need to make use of compositional elements." He
said that "diagonals are used to lead your eye into the photo or out
of it" and that curves "provide a path for the viewer to follow
allowing them to travel through the image, rather than simply looking at
it." He provided some wonderful examples, and you can definitely see
the differences.
 
His tip obviously
has a lot more detail, and a few more example photos.
You can view all of Chris' previous tips by visiting the Digital
Photography Tips category.
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PCIN.net Site Update
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 and Adobe Premier Elements 3.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/photoshopEL5_Premiere3.php
ExpoDisc White Balance Filter Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/expodisc.php
Paragon Software Group Partition Manager 8.0 Professional Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/ppm8.php
Update PCIN.net home page with "Top 10 Most Popular..." features
http://PCIN.net/
Microsoft Digital Image Suite Plus Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/msdimagesuiteplus.php
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Tips and Other Stuff
Our 15 Favorite Celebrity Websites
PC Magazine has a fun article about
good celebrity websites:
We see their pictures in glossy magazines. We watch their movies, games,
or TV shows. We obsess over their relationships. But in this modern age,
there's an even better way to learn about your favorite celebs: Just read
their blogs or visit their Web sites.
We spent the last week looking at celebrity Web sites (as did roughly
half of the cubicle workers in America) and came up with 15 that are worth
following. Some, like JeffBridges.com, are obviously the product of the
celeb's own imagination; others, like DaughtryOfficial.com, are slickly
designed and have loads of great content. And some, like PatSajak.com,
are just surprising (who knew Pat Sajak was a good writer?).
Leave a comment...
IcebergFinder.com
From the beauty and majesty of their sheer size to the heart-wrenching
memories of ill-fated ships, nothing evokes such a combination of awe, curiosity
and caution quite like an iceberg. So if you're looking for icebergs, you've
come to the right place.
Newfoundland and Labrador is the greatest iceberg theatre in the world.
From the east coast of Labrador to Newfoundland's southern shore, you
are in Iceberg Alley, the only place in the world where you can see two
or three story icebergs making their way down the Atlantic Ocean from
Greenland.
IcebergFinder.com is a cool
site that lets you locate icebergs in Eastern Canada, and has a gallery with
some beautiful pictures.
Leave a comment...
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PCIN.net Affiliated
Sites
Both of us have other sites other than PCIN.net. These are all sites that
we are actively involved in (they aren't client sites). Don't forget to check
them out from time to time for updates:
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Disclaimer
and Other Stuff
PCIN is brought to you by Graham Wing. The opinions expressed are those of
the Editor, Graham Wing and the Assistant Editor, Chris Empey. Graham Wing
and Chris Empey accept no responsibility for the results obtained from trying
the tips in this newsletter.
- If any of the links are too long to fit on one line, you may have to cut
and paste.
- To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit http://PCIN.net/ and
follow the appropriate links.
- The only way to become a subscriber is by asking. You have either filled
out the subscription form or asked me directly.
- If you have a web site or run your own newsletter, please email me at editor@pcin.net and
I will add it to the subscriber web pages that I have on my site.
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by clicking on the PayPal link below:
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Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Chris Empey can be reached at chris@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2007, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author
is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.
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